Sleep well to keep wrinkles and fats at bay

Despite being busy, I’ve been going to bed really early to catch up on my beauty sleep. I realized that a few late nights has taken a toll on my face; giving me wrinkles around my eyes, saggy skin around my cheeks and deeper marionette grooves. You can almost say I aged overnight!

While I know the importance of beauty sleep, I didn’t actually understood the biological reasons behind it and here’s what I found out.

Bad hormones, good hormonesWhen we don’t get enough sleep, we’re generating more free radicals and our body is missing out on that valuable downtime to repair the cellular damage those free radicals generate. In addition, lack of sleep causes the body to produce excess cortisol, which is a hormone that breaks down skin cells. This is also the same hormone that is released when we are stressed.

By getting sufficient sleep, dermatologist Nicholas Perricone, M.D. tells us that our body will produce more human growth hormone (HGH), which helps skin remain thick, more elastic and less likely to wrinkle.

You may also like to know that the body’s natural HGH production is at it’s highest output during the first hours of deep sleep.

During the first few hours of sleep we go into what is called the Alpha Sleep phase of the brains sleep cycle where the brain’s pituitary gland releases HGH into the bloodstream and we go into the rejuvenate, repair & replace mode. (source)

In addition, little sleep leads to weight gain as I’ve covered before because there are hormonal secretions that are affected with sleep loss that apparently cause increased feelings of hunger, leading to a foraging in the fridge for food.

So ladies, don’t keep late nights and do sleep early if you want to keep the wrinkles and fats at bay. I’ve noticed that just a week of sleeping early has made those deep lines around my eyes less prominent compared to when I didn’t get sufficient shuteye. And yes, I don’t wake up demanding for supper too!

Also, take note of the tips to optimize beauty sleep I wrote about; including sleeping between 11pm and 3am, sleeping on your back and using a satin pilllowcase. You may also want to use your most active serum and creams before bed to aid the skin rejuvenation process.

I sleep on a Silkskin pillowcase and it’s amazing,it really helps my skin and hair. I found it at Harvey Nichols. It’s the only real silk pillowcase for beauty! check them out at silkskin.co.uk. Would also make a great gift. You may of seen them on the TV

lin: No, I haven’t seen it in Singapore. But I’ll be keen to check it out!